Iran’s Supreme Leader Rejects All Talks With U.S.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei “categorically rejected” all negotiations with the United States, saying that talks are dangerous to Tehran and “won’t help anything,” according to the country’s semi-official Fars News Agency.

Khamenei said on Wednesday that negotiations with the United States “don’t have any benefits” for Iran and rejected the prospect of further discussions.

“Relations with the U.S. and negotiations with that country, except for very specific cases, don’t have any benefits for the Islamic Republic and it is even harmful,” Khamenei told Iran’s diplomatic corps, according to Fars.

Recent negotiations between the United States and Iran on its nuclear program have proved that no issues “will be settled,” according to Khamenei.

“Some people pretended that if we sit to the negotiating table with the Americans, many problems will be settled; of course, we knew that it is not correct but the events during the recent years has now proved this reality several times,” he was quoted as saying.

Nuclear talks “proved futile” and only “emboldened the U.S.” to make demands on Iran, according to Fars.

“Generally speaking, it was revealed that despite the imaginations of certain people, negotiations won’t help anything,” Khamenei said.

So long as economic sanctions remain in place on Iran, negotiations are “unjustified,” Khamenei said.

“As long as the status quo, that is to say the U.S. animosity and the hostile statements of the U.S. administration and Congress on Iran continue, [Iran's] interaction with them will be unjustified,” he was quoted as saying by Fars.